It's Okay If You're Terrified Of Mirrors, You're Not Alone

Frightened of something? Almost certainly. There are many phobias that can afflict people, with the most common being arachnophobia and acrophobia - the fear of spiders and heights, respectively.

A lot of people often find, though, that lesser known fears are actually more common than they realise.

Take trypophobia, for example. It's the fear of holes. Not just any holes. Just Google image it, you'll know what I mean *shudders*.

Catoptrophobia, sometimes referred to as spectrophobia, is the very specific fear of mirrors. Before you make a joke (which I've already thought of and isn't funny anyway) about being ugly and thus being scared of your own reflection, that's a different thing, known as eisoptrophobia.

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Those who suffer from spectrophobia generally believe they've come into contact with an apparition, or some form of supernatural being, via a mirror. Either that or you've spent too many evenings watching horror flicks.

The fear tends to kick in at night, when it's a bit darker and your view of the mirror in your bathroom, hallway or whatever is obscured by the lack of light.

It usually works in a way that the sufferer perceives that the movements in the reflective glass aren't representative of what they're actually doing, forcing them to think it's not actually a mirror.

This could lead them to think that whatever they see in the glass thing hanging on the wall isn't real, and that there's a chance they're being watched through it, will be pulled through it, or something will jump out of it.

Most sufferers are aware that their fears are irrational, according to MedicineNet, who say that despite this, spectrophobics still experience undue anxiety.

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"[The] majority of the cases have their roots in the early past," according to FearOf.

"Earliest known fear of mirrors can be traced back to mankind's fear of still waters. Before modern advances, humans did not use mirrors; rather they saw their reflection in still waters of lakes, rivers etc. They often thought that 'it was their soul staring back at them'.

"This gave rise to the concept that the 'soul could be separated from the body even before death'."

The game Bloody Mary is another thing that only furthers fears of mirrors. Usually played around Halloween, the game involves saying things into a mirror.

You stand in front of a bathroom mirror and summon Mary Queen of Scots, who allegedly 'attacks' you.

To bring the queen to your bathroom, who might be a welcoming presence depending on how lonely you are, you have to switch off the light, get out a candle (which can also be used to help to get rid of a potent smell of shit, so two birds one stone and all that), and run the tap.

While fighting the urge to piss your pants because of the sound of running water, look into the mirror and say, loud and clear, 'Bloody Mary' 13 times.

There are variations of the game where the amount of times you say the witch's name changes, as well as the consequences. Some say that summoning the queen will result in your eyes being scraped out, but we aren't living in any kind of Paranormal Activity film so you don't have to worry about that. We think.

After saying the name, it gets a bit scary - but that could just be because you're in a dark room, seeing only by candle light, and any noises that are made reverberate louder than anywhere else in the house.

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.